#carey mulligan
The Coens continue to bring their distinctive (and successful) brand of filmmaking to the big screen with Inside Llewyn Davis, and features this beautiful sound performed by Justin Timberlake and Carey Mulligan.
“It’s completely absurd that just because we have boobs we’re not treated with the same respect with someone who’s got a penis.”
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The Great Gatsby (2013) dir. Baz Luhrmann | Promising Young Woman (2020) dir. Emerald Fennell
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Girl, Interrupted
Promising Young Woman is a film that absolutely demands your attention. Exploring the often ignored impact that date rape culture has on its victims, it delivers its message with bracing style, striking imagery and deliciously dark humour. A fantastic showcase for both star Carey Mulligan and first-time director Emerald Fennell, it is destined to linger in your memory long after the final credits.
Based on an original idea from Fennel (who you probably know best for playing Camilla in The Crown), the plot is based on an interesting role reversal. What if, it asks, instead of being the hunted prey of men, women became the hunters? Our protagonist Cassie (Carey Mulligan) is a woman on a mission. A surly 30-year-old who still lives with her parents and works at a coffee shop, Cassie plays the role of vulnerable drunk woman at night, stalking nightclubs to expose ‘nice guys’ who try to take advantage of her.
These encounters are as uncomfortable as they are darkly funny. Cassie takes clear delight in toying with her unsuspecting targets, and actors like Adam Brody and Christopher Mintz-Plasse play the role of victims to a tee, from sleazy opportunists to scared shitless. Pulpy and colourful, these sequences are shot with the eeriness of a horror, and the moral uncertainty of Taxi Driver. Benjamin Kracun’s arresting cinematography conjures plenty of memorable images, framing Cassie as the unlikely hero of the story.
As we later find out, this one woman vendetta is a lot more personal than a frivolous pastime. We don’t immediately know about the demons that Cassie is wrestling with, but Fennell leaves enough clues to piece things together. Like BBC’s I May Destroy You, the film approaches a traumatising incident involving Cassie’s friend with subtlety and sensitivity, while illustrating the impact it has had on her social life and career prospects. Fennell takes aim at the cowardly men taking advantage, but also a flawed system that makes victim blaming possible.
This is the role of a lifetime, and Mulligan grabs the opportunity with both hands. Spitting in coffee, creepily winking to the camera, and using sinister ploys to rip her victims to pieces, this is the actress as you’ve never seen her before. It is a joy to watch as Mulligan switches her persona for different circumstances, from a fake-friendly ex class mate (Alison Brie), to a dismissive school Dean (Connie Britton). Mulligan also convinces as someone so consumed by vengeance that they have no time for their own happiness. When Cassie strikes up a hopeful romance with a genuinely good guy (Bo Burnham is goofily likeable), it feels like something out of a fantasy movie, complete with a joyous singalong montage in a neon convenience store.
In her first film as director, Fennell proves a master of playing with expectations. Like the main character to her victims, the plot lures you into a false sense of security of where it will go, before confronting you with a stressful and scary reality. Vibrant and bold in its execution, it explores an important issue with the urgency and attention that it deserves.
Tackling a serious topic with style, humour and rage, Promising Young Woman is a knockout of a movie, with a powerhouse performance from Mulligan.
★★★★★
The great Gatsby,Baz Luhrmann(2013):
PS: Pictures not mine, credits to the owner.
Rating: 9/10
- Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter - tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther… And one fine morning - So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
- All the bright precious things fade so fast… and they don’t come back.
- Well, I don’t care. He gives large parties, and I like large parties - they’re so intimate. Small parties, there isn’t any privacy.
- I knew it was a great mistake for a man like me to fall in love…
- I hope she’ll be a fool - that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.
- Stocks reached record peaks, and Wall Street boomed a steady golden roar. The parties were bigger, the shows were broader, the buildings were higher, the models were looser, and the ban on alcohol had backfired. Making the liquor cheaper. Wall Street was luring the young and ambitious, and I was one of them.
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never let me go (2010)
